Song of the Week: Justin Townes Earle, "Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now"

Song of the Week: Justin Townes Earle, "Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now"

The best Justin Townes Earle songs feature people dealing with loneliness and the mistakes lonely men make. They're also songs steeped in geography and details that match a city's personality: Across his first three and a half albums, he's already taken us from Brooklyn to South Georgia, Chicago to Christchurch, New Zealand. The fourth album (out this week) winds up being less about a place than the distinctive sound of a place. Much of Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now is an exercise in Memphis soul — the sultry, horn-driven style Stax Records made famous. It's a new direction that leaves Earle sounding both energized and vulnerable. Airtight horns give even the most barebones songs a punchy edge. And on the title track, those horns underscore the most succinctly-written breakup song of his career. In just three pointedly unglamorous minutes, he walks us through the three cycles of a failed relationship: the nagging suspicion that it's doomed, the conversation full of things you shouldn't have said, and the devastation of everything after. Sure, it sounds unmistakably rooted in Memphis, but it'll be just as stunning wherever you happen to hear it.

Cat Power, "Living Proof"

Cat Power, "Living Proof"

Because for her Memphis-themed album The Greatest, Chan Marshal went full-tilt authentic, enlisting Al Green's guitarist and songwriting partner Mabon "Teenie" Hodges to play across the whole set. And because this is the slinkiest, smartest track on it.